The U.S. has had a busy tornado season so far, and the majority of the storms are blasting through the Midwest, east of what\u2019s traditionally thought of as Tornado Alley.<\/p>\n
Wisconsin has seen a higher than average number of tornadoes so far this year, according to data from the National Weather Service<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s been an active tornado year so far across Wisconsin with 39 documented tornadoes, which ties it with (2025) for the sixth most in an entire year since 1950,\u201d the NWS wrote in an update released Monday.<\/p>\n Understanding Wisconsin, Together.<\/p>\n WPR\u2019s \u201cWisconsin Today\u201d newsletter keeps you connected to the state you love without feeling overwhelmed. No paywall. No agenda. No corporate filter.<\/p>\n The NWS says the average number of tornadoes for Wisconsin in a calendar year is 23. In recent years, the state has seen tornado totals around double that number.<\/p>\n Historically, tornadoes have most frequently touched down in the Great Plains, hitting states like Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas, but research has found since 1979 that pattern has been shifting.<\/p>\n \u201cTornadoes have been happening with less frequency in the Great Plains over the last 40 years,\u201d said Victor Gensini, a professor and director at Northern Illinois University\u2019s Center for Interdisciplinary Research on Convective Storms. \u201cAnd they\u2019ve been having greater frequency in places like Illinois and Indiana and Tennessee and portions of the Mid-South and the Midwest.\u201d<\/p>\n NWS data shows some of the worst tornado years for Wisconsin have been recorded in just the past two decades. And the Wisconsin State Climatology Office\u2019s June 2026 Climate Summary<\/a> found storm warnings were common this year.<\/p>\n \u201cWith 183 severe thunderstorm and tornado warnings issued in the state (nearly double the monthly average), it was Wisconsin\u2019s most active June since 2008,\u201d the summary states.<\/p>\n And, as of July, Wisconsin has already tied with last year\u2019s total number, according to NWS data.<\/p>\n Illinois leads the nation with 178 tornadoes so far, according to the National Weather Service. That\u2019s more than three times the typical number of tornadoes \u2014 54 on average \u2014 Illinois experiences annually.<\/p>\n Missouri also has far outnumbered the state\u2019s average of 52 tornadoes in recent years. And Indiana broke the record for\u00a0most tornadoes<\/a>\u00a0in the state this year with 77 so far, according to the National Weather Service. The state averages 22 tornadoes annually. In Iowa, there have been 68 tornadoes this year, while the state averages 50.<\/p>\n The growing number of tornadoes in the Midwest is a trend Gensini has been studying for nearly a decade. He published groundbreaking research<\/a> in 2018 first showing that tornadoes are shifting east.<\/p>\n \u201cIf the last eight years have shown us anything since that paper was published, it\u2019s that these trends are continuing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n While 2026 isn\u2019t the worst year on record for Wisconsin tornadoes, the impact and severity of the twisters are notable.<\/p>\n The NWS has recorded three EF3 tornadoes statewide so far. The first hit on April 14, near Union Center in southern Wisconsin. The second came on April 17, in Buffalo County near the Minnesota border, and the third hit the same day near Ringle, in central Wisconsin.<\/p>\n There have been a number of smaller EF2, EF1 and EF0 tornadoes this year, according to the data.<\/p>\n In 2025, there were no EF3 tornadoes in Wisconsin, according to NWS data<\/a>. There were four EF2 tornadoes, and multiple smaller twisters.<\/p>\n Changing trends\u00a0<\/p>\n An EF3 tornado<\/a> touched down in Effingham<\/a>, Illinois, on June 17, downing trees and power lines and flattening a family-owned Corvette museum and parts store. Owner Michael Yager grew up in the area and was at home when the tornado<\/a> touched down.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t ever recall anything of this nature being around here,\u201d he said. \u201cI mean we\u2019ve had thunderstorms and winds and things of that nature, but never anything like this.\u201d<\/p>\n Experts say warmer temperatures brought by climate change could be contributing to this increase in activity in the Midwest.<\/p>\n \u201cThe conditions are kind of favorable, right, if we have more of that heat and humidity laying around,\u201d Gensini said.<\/p>\n Still, he said it\u2019s impossible to tell if any single tornado in the Midwest is caused by climate change. He likens it to the steroid era of baseball<\/a>, when a number of players were believed to be using performance-enhancing drugs.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think anybody could have looked at a single home run and said, \u2018That home run was directly due to steroids,\u2019\u201d Gensini said, \u201cbut if you look at the number of home runs during the steroid era, basically everybody that knows anything about baseball looked at that and said, \u2018Whoah that\u2019s a statistical anomaly.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Climate change can also impact when tornadoes occur, according to Missouri State climatologist Zack Leasor, creating a longer window for the possibility of severe weather. <\/p>\n \u201cOne thing I think that\u2019ll really in the future start to show more with climate change is we\u2019ll see some more severe weather and tornadoes in other parts of the year that were traditionally cold,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Still, experts say there\u2019s no simple link that can be made between more tornado activity and climate change.<\/p>\n Steve Nesbitt, who heads the Department of Climate, Meteorology and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, said the pattern changes seem consistent with a warming climate \u2014 but more information is needed.<\/p>\n \u201cWithout doing a lot more research on this topic, it\u2019s tough to attribute what we\u2019re observing in severe weather directly to climate change,\u201d he said, \u201cbut we do know that a lot of the impacts of climate change can lead to more severe weather.\u201d<\/p>\n Even as tornado activity has increased in the Midwest, it hasn\u2019t lessened the risk of tornadoes in what\u2019s traditionally been considered Tornado Alley \u2014 South Dakota down to Texas\u2019 panhandle.<\/p>\n \u201cThe trend has been for more tornadoes in Illinois and portions of the Midwest, but that doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s shifted away from the Great Plains,\u201d Gensini said. \u201cThe Great Plains \u2014 they\u2019re still the highest density or the highest frequency of these events every single year.\u201d<\/p>\n As for why Illinois is currently leading the nation, there\u2019s no scientific reason the state has seen significantly more tornado activity than Indiana or Missouri, said Illinois State Climatologist Trent Ford. <\/p>\n \u201cThe fact that Illinois is getting pummeled at a disproportionately high rate relative to other similarly sized states nearby is chalking it up to bad luck, unfortunately,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Being prepared<\/p>\n As of May, there have been 763 tornadoes nationwide<\/a>, according to preliminary data from the National Weather Service. Twelve people have died.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m calling this year a huge success: record numbers of tornadoes but not record number of fatalities,\u201d Gensini said.<\/p>\n Midwesterners should be prepared to continue seeing a large number of tornadoes, even if they don\u2019t live in a typically tornado-prone state, he said.<\/p>\n \u201cI think everybody regardless of where you live in the Midwest, I think really should have a tornado safety plan,\u201d Gensini said. \u201cWhere are you going to go if a tornado warning is issued?\u201d<\/p>\n He recommends going to the basement, lowest level of a building or an interior room without windows and making a safety kit.<\/p>\n \u201cYour safety kit should probably have a bike helmet in it,\u201d Gensini said. \u201cMost of the injuries and fatalities that we see from tornadoes are blunt force trauma to the head, so what better way to stop that from happening then a bike helmet?\u201d<\/p>\n While the number of tornadoes and severity is not changing nationally, Gensini said, property damage<\/a> from these severe storms is. That\u2019s due to the increase in the human footprint. A tornado that once would have passed through a cornfield might now tear down a strip mall.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have a lot more bullseyes on the dartboard for these events to hit,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Meteorologists have gotten a lot better at forecasting the conditions that can lead to tornadoes, but Gensini is worried cuts to the National Weather Service by the Trump administration could put that at risk.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are missing dozens of weather balloon launches across the country, especially in the center part of the country, which are having an impact on our morning forecasts for severe storms,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n